Jersey race promoter claims they have 15-year F1 deal - MotorSportsTalk

The organizers of the planned F1 race in New Jersey say they have agreed a new 15-year contract with Bernie Ecclestone to host the race from next season.

The event, dubbed the Jersey Grand Prix, was given a place on the 2013 calendar last year but was cancelled when it became clear the venue would not be ready in time.

“Bernie was 100 percent correct in that we hadn’t satisfied his demands and we didn’t have a binding contract in place, and he had every right to question our ability to get it done,” said Leo Hindery, the former racing driver behind the proposal, to the Star-Ledger.

“And as we told Governor [Chris] Christie, we were going to do it without any money from the state or the towns, and that made it very difficult. And it took us longer.”

Proposals for a 19-turn, 3.2-mile street course on the bank of the Hudson River were revealed last May. Race promoters visited the Canadian Grand Prix last weekend to meet with Ecclestone.

“We’re going to go racing sometime in June 2014,” Hindery added.

The Port Imperial race organizers recently announced the hiring of former Long Beach Grand Prix promoter Chris Pook as Bindery’s special assistant. Marty Hunt, the former director of facilities at the Circuit of the Americas, became their director of race operations last week.

Ecclestone said last month a final decision on the race would not be taken for “another couple of months”.

An IndyCar executive said there is “absolutely” disappointment that its long-awaited video game recently was delayed beyond its target date, but the series remains optimistic about the new title.

“Well, I don’t know how quick it will be, but the whole situation is important to us,” Penske Entertainment president and CEO Mark Miles said during a news conference Monday morning to announce IndyCar’s NTT title sponsorship. “Motorsport Games has spent a lot of money, a lot of effort to create an IndyCar title. What we’ve seen of that effort, which is not completely obvious, is very reassuring.

“I think it’s going to be outstanding. That’s our shared objective, that when it is released, it’s just widely accepted. A great credit both to IndyCar racing, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, something that our fans love.”

In June 2021, IndyCar announced a new partnership with Motorsport Games to create and distribute an IndyCar video game for the PC and Xbox and PlayStation consoles in 2023.

But during an earnings call last week, Motorsport Games said the IndyCar game had been delayed to 2024 to ensure high quality.

Somewhat compounding the delay is that IndyCar’s license for iRacing expired after the end of the 2022 season because of its exclusive agreement with Motorsport Games.

That’s resulted in significant changes for IndyCar on iRacing, which had provided a high-profile way for the series to stay visible during its 2020 shutdown from the pandemic. (Players still can race an unbranded car but don’t race on current IndyCar tracks, nor can they stream).

That’s helped ratchet up the attention on having a video game outlet for IndyCar.

“I wish we had an IndyCar title 10 years ago,” said Miles, who has been working with the organization since 2013. “We’ve been close, but we’ve had these I think speed bumps.”

IndyCar is hopeful the Motorsports Game edition will be ready at the start of 2024. Miles hinted that beta versions could be unveiled to reporters ahead of the time “to begin to show the progress in a narrow way to make sure we’ve got it right, to test the progress so that we’re ready when they’re ready.”

It’s been nearly 18 years since the release of the most recent IndyCar video game for console or PC.

“(We) better get it right,” Miles said. “It’s something we’re very close to and continue to think about what it is to make sure we get it over the line in due course.”